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Pacific-class

Lykes Lines is one of the US liner industry's longest enduring brands. It began as Lykes Bros. Steamship Company in 1899, with a wooden schooner transporting cattle from the US Gulf to Cuba. In the 1920s, it expanded, opening offices in Europe, and by the 1930s trade routes extended to the Mediterranean and Asia. In 1979, the Letitia Lykes was the first US-flag ship to call at a port in China since the revolution there.

In 1997, Lykes Lines was acquired by CP Ships, and has since evolved as an international brand. Today it offers services in the US, Canada, North Europe, Mediterranean, Asia, India, Oceania, Africa, Central and South America and the Caribbean. Its services include those previously operated under the Ivaran and CCAL brands, which were acquired by CP Ships in 1998 and 2000 respectively. On 28 April 2005, CP Ships announced it will re-brand its services under the CP Ships name and retire this brand by the end of 2005.

Construction of the container ship Lykes Navigator was ordered in Japan in April of 1984. In January of 1986 the nearly completed ship was launched and during April of that year she entered service as Almeria Lykes. Through her career since then she has always flown the US flag but she has had the following names: Almeria Lykes (1987), President Buchanan (August 1996), Almeria Lykes (02 September 1998), and her fourth name, Lykes Navigator. Construction of the container ship Lykes Discoverer was completed in Japan. She was launched during October of 1986 and she entered service during April of 1987 as James Lykesunder the US flag. She has sailed under that flag for entire career but she has had several different names through her career so far: James Lykes (1987), President Harding (1996), Margaret Lykes (1998) and Lykes Discoverer.

In July 1997 Canadian Pacific Ltd (CP) acquired the container shipping arm of Lykes Bros Steamship Co, registering these services under a new Tampa-based company known as Lykes Lines Ltd. Effectively Lykes became a subsidiary of the CP Ships group of companies in a US$34-million deal. The acquisition included the container shipping services of Lykes Lines, the Lykes Lines brand name, organisation, container fleet, vendor contracts and assumption of ongoing liabilities. CP handled the chartering of eight vessels, including four 2,800-TEU capacity Pacific-class vessels owned by Sea Crews II, a US company owned by GATX and Gilman, former creditors of Lykes. These vessels do not carry an operational subsidy. Three of the four 2,800-TEU vessels that do not carry operational subsidies form part of the 47-ship Maritime Security Fleet.

In June 1998 the US Maritime Administration approved an application by the First American Bulk Carrier Corp. (FABC) to permit three vessels in the Lykes Lines fleet to participate in the Maritime Security Program. FABC will charter the Lykes Discoverer, Lykes Liberator and Lykes Navigator from the financial institutions that own these ships. FABC, in turn, sub-chartered the vessels to Lykes for continued use in the US East Coast - North Europe trade lane. Under the MARAD approval, three Maritime Security Program operating agreements were transferred to FABC for use in supporting the continued US-flag operation of the vessels. As part of the overall transaction, Lykes ceased to be the operator of the three vessels enrolled in the Maritime Security Program, and Marine Transport Lines became the new operator of the vessels.

These vessels are managed for US Maritime Administration by Marine Transport Corporation (MTC), formerly named OMI Corp. MTC was established in its present form through a series of transactions, culminating June 17, 1998, through which OMI Corp.: acquired Marine Transport Lines, Inc. in a stock-for-stock exchange (the "Acquisition") and distributed to its shareholders the stock of a newly created Marshall Islands corporation named OMI Corporation ("New OMI") containing OMI Corp.'s international businesses (the "Distribution"). OMI Corp. then changed its name to Marine Transport Corporation. GATX Corporation purchased MTL in 1970. MTL was spun off from GATX to become a publicly traded company for first time in 1983. Eighteen vessels, primarily large roll-on/roll-off cargo vessels, are managed under contracts which expired in June 1998 and have been extended to the present time; MTC is presently bidding on five year renewal of these contracts.

Saturday, 2 February, 2002: the container ship Lykes Liberator, sailing from Bremerhaven (Germany) to Charleston (USA) with 3000 containers on board reports the loss of 60 containers in rough sea, 120 nautical miles west of the island of Sein. One of the containers holds products classified as dangerous. It is a forty-feet open container (i.e. a simple metal structure, without roof nor sides). The maritime prefecture of the Atlantic immediately addresses risk matters as regard maritime traffic (drifting containers endanger passing-by ships), as well as risks for the environment and possibly for human lives. On the very same day, a French Navy spotter plane locates a yellow tank in the area indicated by the Lykes Liberator.

Tropical Depression Henri, earlier a tropical storm in the Gulf of Mexico, crossed northern Florida early on 06 September 2004. Gale-force north to northeast winds developed by then between the remains of Henri and the ridge to the north, which persisted through the 11th. The Lykes Explorer (WGLA) and the vessel Energy Enterprise (WBJF) reported north winds of 40 kt near 34N 77W and 34N 76W, respectively, at 1800 UTC September 9. The Lykes Explorer also encountered northeast winds of 40 kt near 36N 74W atv 1200 UTC on the 10th.

A strong low produced gale to storm conditions across the western Atlantic between 31 January and 5 February 2005. At 1200 UTC 02 February 2005, the ship Lykes Explorer (WGLA) reported 60-kts winds just northwest of Bermuda while the Cap San Nicolas (ELYX3) observed 40 kts winds near 31N 65W. Gale force winds well west and southwest of the low were detected by a QuikSCAT pass around 1145 UTC 2 February. However, the area of storm force winds encountered by the Lykes Explorer (WGLA) was located between the two QuikSCAT passes. This provided an excellent case to demonstrate the importance of accurate ship observations. Even with QuikSCAT data routinely available to marine forecasters, in this situation the storm force observation from the Lykes Explorer (WGLA) was extremely critical to the warning and forecast process.

On July 24, 2002 the Maritime Administration (MARAD) granted approval to Waterman Steamship Corporation to replace the Lighter Aboard Ship (LASH) GREEN ISLAND with the container vessel LYKES MOTIVATOR under Maritime Security Program (MSP) Operating Agreement MA/MSP-44. The approval was subject to the conditions that Waterman continued to maintain its status as a citizenship of the United States and the company enroll the LYKES MOTIVATOR in the voluntary Intermodal Sealift Agreement (VISA). MARAD found that replacing the GREEN ISLAND with the LYKES MOTIVATOR would provide the MSP fleet with a relatively new, efficient and militarily useful vessel.

By letter dated August 22, 2005, CP Ships USA, LLC (CP USA), successor in interest to Lykes Lines Limited, LLC (Lykes), has advised the Maritime Administration (MARAD) that TUI AG (TUI) is acquiring CP Ships Limited (CP Ships), the parent company of CP USA, through a stock purchase. Lykes has been awarded five new MSP Operating Agreements, Nos. MA/MSP-74 through 78, respectively, to the vessels CP NAVIGATOR (ex-LYKES NAVIGATOR), CP DISCOVERER (ex-LYKES DISCOVERER), CP LIBERATOR (ex-LYKES LIBERATOR), CP MOTIVATOR (ex-LYKES MOTIVATOR) and CP YOSEMITE (ex-TMM YUCATAN) for the participation of those vessels in the MSP beginning October 1, 2005.

CP USA became the successor to Lykes on May 30, 2005, through reorganization and renaming of various components of Canadian Pacific Lines, Limited, which itself was renamed CP Ships. TUI is a German corporation and parent of the German vessel operator Hapag-Lloyd AG. Neither TUI, nor Hapag-Lloyd presently has any connection to the MSP. Implementation of the proposed purchase will bring the ultimate control of CP USA's five MSP Fleet vessels under the ownership of TUI.

The purchase of CP Ships by TUI will, in effect, transfer ultimate ownership of CP USA from one foreign corporate entity to another. The transaction requires MARAD approval under CP USA's MSP Operating Agreements Nos. MA/MSP-74 through 78. This notice is being published as a matter of discretion. MARAD will consider all comments submitted in a timely fashion on this particular application, and the topic of the transfer of MSP Operating Agreements in general, and will take such action thereto as may be deemed appropriate.

Ships
Name	Former Name	Builder	Launched	Decom
Lykes Discoverer	MARGARET LYKES	Mitsui	1987	-
Lykes Explorer	GENEVIEVE LYKES	Mitsui	1987	-
Lykes Liberator	Stella Lykes	Mitsui	1987	-
Lykes Navigator	ALMERIA LYKES	Mitsui	1987	-
LYKES MOTIVATOR		SAMSUNG SHIPBLDG & HEAVY	1991	-

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